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For decades, beloved films and TV shows like The Godfather and The Sopranos have given viewers a glimpse of what life is like inside the Mafia. And though fictional characters like Vito Corleone and Tony Soprano were actually based on real-life Mafia bosses, the true stories of the American mob and its kingpins are far more sensational than any fictional narrative could ever depict.The modern American Mafia began to take shape in the 1920s, mostly in and around New York City, when a perfect storm of immigration trends and alcohol restrictions created the conditions for the birth of a criminal underworld. As members of the Sicilian Mafia fled the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini back in Italy, Italian-Americans and other ethnic groups started to profit from bootlegging illegal alcohol during Prohibition.Getty Images, Wikimedia CommonsFrom left, Al Capone, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, and Frank Costello, some of the most powerful and feared mob kingpins in history.This union of Italian-Americans bootleggers and Sicilian Mafiosi led to the birth of the American Mafia (distinct from the Mafia back in Italy, though it retained some of the old traditions). And it didnt take long for things to get violent.At the end of the 1920s, a bloody conflict called the Castellammarese War broke out between the two most powerful New York City gangs, one led by Salvatore Maranzano, the other by Joe Masseria. Maranzano came out on top when he had Masseria assassinated in 1931, and crowned himself capo di tutti capi, boss of all bosses. Then, he set out to reorganize things.Maranzano created a power structure within the American Mafia known as the Five Families, which were then known as Luciano, Gagliano, Mangano, Maranzano, and Profaci, each named for the man who would lead it and each with its own territory. These men were the first generation of Mafia bosses in the modern sense and they governed their respective families with the help of underbosses, lieutenants known as capos, and soldiers.But this structure also gave rise to resentment toward Maranzano. As the boss of all bosses, he claimed to have more power than the others. Soon enough, Luciano Family boss Lucky Luciano had Maranzano killed. Afterward, Luciano did not name himself capo di tutti capi, though he did otherwise maintain the structure that Maranzano had set up.Furthermore, in the aftermath of Maranzanos murder, Luciano established the Commission, an umbrella Mafia organization that acted as a governing body. In addition to the Five Families, it also oversaw families outside of New York City, families that operated across the country.And though, at this same time, Prohibition ended the Mafias bootlegging operation, mob bosses quickly pivoted to other pursuits. In the mid-20th century, Mafia bosses integrated themselves both into legitimate businesses like garbage collection as well as illicit ones like gambling.By the time it hit its peak circa the 1950s, the American Mafia had thousands of members and two dozen families. And these families were governed by Mafia bosses, men who were cunning and ruthless enough to rise to the top of their respective organizations.These are the stories of 13 of the most notorious Mafia bosses in American history, from Lucky Luciano to John Gotti to Al Capone.How Mafia Boss Lucky Luciano Built The Mob As We Know ItWikimedia CommonsLucky Luciano helped take down not one but two powerful mob bosses before he set out to organize the American Mafia.Long before he was called Lucky, Charles Luciano was born as Salvatore Lucania in Sicily on Nov. 24, 1897. He and his family moved to New York City when Luciano was around the age of 10, and Luciano struggled in school but thrived among the criminal element of the Lower East Side.Before long, Luciano was charging his schoolmates for protection, pickpocketing oblivious passersby, and selling drugs. He also struck up profitable friendships with two members of Jewish gangs: Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Bugsy Siegel.Along the way, Luciano transformed himself from Salvatore Lucania to Charles Luciano, purportedly because he thought Sal or Sally wasnt masculine. He also allegedly earned the nickname Lucky in 1929 when he survived a brutal attack from fellow gangsters. They beat him, stabbed him, and slit his throat before leaving him for dead on a local beach.Soon after Lucky Luciano survived the beating, but hed go on to play a crucial role in the Castellammarese War that broke out in 1930 between rival Mafia bosses Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano. Though Luciano was an ally of Masseria, he made a deal with Maranzano to help assassinate Masseria if it could bring the bloody conflict to a close.Do you know why you are here? Maranzano allegedly asked Luciano and his fellow gangster Vito Genovese. When they nodded, Maranzano said: Good. I dont have to tell you what needs to be done Im looking forward to a peaceful Easter.On April 15, 1931, Masseria went to have dinner in Coney Island, Brooklyn. As The New York Times notes, most accounts of this infamous dinner state that Luciano met Masseria there but excused himself to go to the bathroom. At that point, other mobsters burst in and killed Masseria.Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe body of Joe Masseria just after his assassination in April 1931.In the aftermath, Luciano also turned on Maranzano, who he had killed just months later. Then Luciano set out to bring order to the American Mafia through the creation of an overarching, nationwide governing body called the Commission.He lived the high life as a Mafia boss and de facto Commission head for several years, but was convicted of extortion and prostitution in 1936, and deported back to Italy in 1946. Despite his violent life, Lucky Luciano didnt die at the hands of another mob boss but instead of a fatal heart attack that struck on Jan. 26, 1962 just before Italian authorities intended to arrest him for drug trafficking.Joe Bonanno, The Mob Boss Who Wrote A Tell-All BookNY Daily News Archive/Getty ImagesJoe Bonanno leaving U.S. Federal Court with his attorney, Albert Krieger, on May 18, 1968.Like Lucky Luciano and several other famous mob bosses, Joe Bonanno rose to power after the Castellammarese War. Unlike other bosses, however, Bonanno wrote a tell-all autobiography. He violated omerta, the Mafia code of silence and secrecy, yet Bonanno was able to live out his days in peace for another 20 years.Born in Sicily on Jan. 18, 1905, Bonanno immigrated to New York City at a young age but spent just 10 years in the U.S. before his family returned to Italy. There, he came of age in the Sicilian Mafia and returned to New York City in 1924 as Mussolini cracked down on organized crime.Young and well-read, Bonanno rose through the ranks of the Maranzano Family before the Castellammarese War saw the deaths of mob bosses Salvatore Maranzano and Joe Masseria. Just 26 years old, Bonanno then took control over the Maranzano Family, which became the Bonanno Family. As the head of one of New Yorks Five Families, Bonanno had considerable power in Lucky Lucianos governing body, the Commission.For nearly a thirty-year period after the Castellammarese War no internal squabbles marred the unity of our Family and no outside interference threatened the Family or me, Bonanno later wrote.But Joe Bonanno started to run into trouble in the 1960s. Then, The New York Times reports that his fellow Mafia bosses Tommy Three Finger Brown Lucchese and Carlo Gambino learned that Bonanno was planning to assassinate them in order to consolidate his power.Wikimedia CommonsJoe Bonanno was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice and convicted at the age of 75 in 1980. It was his first arrest.Around the same time, Bonanno had also started to run into legal trouble. And as his problems mounted, he simply disappeared for 19 months.The mob boss later claimed that hed been abducted but whatever the truth behind his disappearance Bonanno was never quite as powerful afterward. And then he did two things that most mob bosses never do: he retired in 1968 and wrote a tell-all biography in 1983.Gay Talese, who wrote Honor Thy Father about the Bonannos, told The New York Post that Bonanno was allowed to live for another 20 years before his death at the age of 97 because he hadnt broken any Mafia rules.He never violated the code of silence, Talese said, he wasnt a rat like Sammy the Bull [Gravano], and he wasnt an arrogant showoff like John Gotti.The post 13 Mafia Bosses Who Defined The Mob appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Many of us are so familiar with the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down that we could sing it in our sleep. We remember playing the London Bridge game in the schoolyard with our friends, chanting the tune, and trying not to get caught as the arch fell down.Library of CongressA group of school girls play the London Bridge game in 1898.But if youre unfamiliar with the sing-song story, here are some of the lyrics:London Bridge is falling down,Falling down, falling down.London Bridge is falling down,My fair lady.Off to prison you must go,You must go, you must go;Off to prison you must go,My fair lady.While the tune of this classic nursery rhyme sounds playful and the game might appear innocent, there are some sinister theories about where it originated from and what its really about.So what is the true meaning of London Bridge Is Falling Down? Lets take a look at some of the possibilities. Who Wrote London Bridge Is Falling Down?WikicommonsA page from Tommy Thumbs Pretty Song Book published in 1744 that shows the beginning of London Bridge Is Falling Down.While the song was first published as a nursery rhyme in the 1850s, many experts believe that London Bridge Is Falling Down dates back to the medieval era and possibly even before that. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, similar rhymes have been discovered across Europe in places such as Germanys Die Magdeburger Brck, Denmarks Knippelsbro Gr Op og Ned, and Frances pont chus.It wasnt until 1657 that the rhyme was first referenced in England during the comedy The London Chaunticleres, and the full rhyme wasnt published until 1744 when it made its debut in Tommy Thumbs Pretty Song Book.The lyrics back then were very different from what we hear today: London BridgeIs Broken down,Dance over my Lady Lee.London Bridge,Is Broken down,With a gay Lady.A melody for the rhyme was noted a bit earlier for an edition of The Dancing Master in 1718, but it has a different tune than the modern version of London Bridge Is Falling Down as well as no recorded lyrics.As this vague history shows, the actual author of the rhyme still remains very much unknown. The Sinister Meaning Behind The RhymeWiki CommonsAn illustration of London Bridge with an accompanying score by Walter Crane.The meaning of London Bridge Is Falling Down? has long been debated by historians and other experts. Like many popular childrens stories, there are some darker meanings that lurk underneath the songs surface.However, the most commonly accepted origin story for the rhyme is that of the London Bridge actually falling down in 1014 because Viking leader Olaf Haraldsson allegedly pulled it down during an invasion of the British Isles.Though the reality of that attack has never been proven, the tale of it inspired a collection of Old Norse poems written in 1230, containing a verse that sounds close to the nursery rhyme. It translates to London Bridge is broken down. Gold is won, and bright renown.But that wasnt the only event that could have inspired the London Bridge rhyme. Part of the bridge was damaged in 1281 due to ice damage, and it was weakened by multiple fires in the 1600s including the Great Fire of London in 1666. Despite all of its structural failures, the London Bridge survived for 600 years and never actually fell down as the nursery rhyme implies. When it was finally demolished in 1831, it was only because it was more cost-effective to replace it rather than repair it. One dark theory behind the bridges longevity maintains that there were bodies encased in its moorings. The author of the book The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland Alice Bertha Gomme suggests that the origin of London Bridge Is Falling Down refers to the use of a medieval punishment known as immurement. Immurement is when a person is encased into a room with no openings or exits and left there to die. Immurement was a form of punishment as well as a form of sacrifice. Gomme points to the lyric take the key and lock her up as a nod to this inhumane practice and the belief that the sacrifices may have been children. According to her, people during those times believed that the bridge would collapse if there wasnt a body buried inside. Thankfully, this disturbing suggestion has never been proven and there is no archaeological evidence that suggests its true. Who Is The Fair Lady?A Book of Nursery RhymesAn illustration of the London Bridge is Falling Down game from the 1901 novel A Book of Nursery Rhymes.In addition to the mystery behind London Bridge Is Falling Down, theres also the matter of the fair lady.Some believe she may be the Virgin Mary, as part of the theory that the rhyme is a reference to a centuries-old Viking attack. Supposedly, the attack happened on September 8th, the date when the Virgin Marys birthday is traditionally celebrated. Because the Vikings were unable to take the city after they burned the London Bridge, the English claimed the Virgin Mary, or fair lady protected it. A few royal consorts have also been mentioned as potential fair ladies. Eleanor of Provence was a consort of Henry III and controlled all London Bridge revenue in the late 13th century. Matilda of Scotland was a consort of Henry I, and she commissioned several bridges to be built in the early 12th century. The last potential candidate is a member of the Leigh family of Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire. This family dates back to the 17th century in England and claims that one of their own was entombed under the London Bridge as an alleged human immurement sacrifice. However, none of these ladies has ever been definitively proven to be the fair lady of the song. The London Bridge Songs LegacyWikicommonsThe score of London Bridge Is Falling Down.Today, the London Bridge Is Falling Down has become one of the most popular rhymes in the world. Its continually referenced in literature and pop culture, most notably T.S. Eliots The Waste Land in 1922, the My Fair Lady musical in 1956, and country music artist Brenda Lees 1963 song My Whole World Is Falling Down.And of course, the rhyme inspired the popular London Bridge game thats still played by children today.In this game, two children link their arms to form an arch of a bridge while the other kids take turns running underneath them. They continue to run through until the singing stops, the arch falls, and someone is trapped. That person is eliminated, and the game is repeated until theres one player left.Even though it left such a major mark in our modern-day world, the true meaning behind this medieval tale may never be known.After a look at the meaning behind London Bridge Is Falling Down, check out the true and disturbing story behind Hansel and Gretal. Then, discover the shocking history of the ice cream song.The post Exploring The Allegedly Grisly Meaning Behind London Bridge Is Falling Down appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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